The present invention relates to computer components and more particularly to an interface controller for controlling the relationship between a central processor and a peripheral data input/output device.
In the normal operation of computer equipment, it is desirable to interconnect various types of input/output devices to the central processing units. In defining the interface between a central processor and a peripheral device, it is often necessary to take into account the manner in which the peripheral device operates in terms of storage and retrieval of information. With respect to current types of peripheral units dealing with the storage and recording of information on magnetic media, it is often required to tie up computer time during the period of time which is necessary to take the information stored on a magnetic media and transfer it to the working memory of a data processor. The reverse is also true. This is a requirement of the real time nature of the peripheral device and fails to take into account the fact that the computer or data processor is operating at a sufficiently high speed that it is capable of carrying out independent operations during the time that storage and retrieval of stored information is taking place.